President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday threw a wrench in U.S. plans to build icebreaker vessels with Canada and Finland, saying he told outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “We don’t need a partner.”
The remarks, at a freewheeling press conference and part of a broader critique of Canada’s reliance on the U.S., immediately cast a shadow on the future of the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort Pact, which was first announced at the NATO summit in Washington in July.
“I called him, Gov. Trudeau, I said, ‘Listen, what would happen if we didn’t subsidize you?’ Because we give them a lot of money, we help them,” Trump said. “As an example, we’re buying icebreakers, and Canada wants to join us in the buying of icebreakers. I said, ‘We don’t really want to have a partner in the buying of icebreakers. We don’t need a partner.’”
Trump also touched on security and trade relations, saying the U.S. spends “hundreds of billions per year to protect” Canada.
